The Saturday briefing: Knowledge is power

IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.

There are probably between 256 and 6,400 front doors in the UK your own key would open

Q. IN the television crime drama series Murder, She Wrote Jessica Fletcher lives in a place called Cabot Cove. Is there really such a place? If not can you tell me where it is filmed?Mrs G Carless, Macclesfield, Cheshire

A. THERE is a real Cabot Cove, which is a harbour bay inlet in Kennebunkport, Maine, but the Murder, She Wrote series was not filmed there and is not particularly based on that place. The shots of Cabot Cove in the TV drama were filmed in Mendocino, California.

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A. ROBERT Wagner was never formally offered the role but his friend and agent Cubby Broccoli, who produced many Bond films, did suggest to Wagner in 1971 that he might be ideal for the role as a replacement for George Lazenby.

According to Wagner’s own account he took about “two seconds” to reject the idea saying: “James Bond has to be English. Roger Moore is your guy.” And the rest is history.

Q. IN which decade from 1900 to the present day were the most murders in the UK recorded (excluding terrorism)?Marlene Hadcroft, Great Harwood, Lancashire

A. FROM 1900 until the 1960s the number of homicides slowly fell in the UK but since 1960 the trend has been upwards. In the decade from 2000 to 2009 there were more than twice as many murders in the UK as in the decades from the 1910s to 1960s.

So far in the 2010s the murder rate has started to fall again from a high of almost 1,000 in 2001 to just 537 in the year to March 2014.

UNIVERSAL TELEVISION

The Murder, She Wrote series is not particularly based on the real Cabot Cove

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Robert Wagner was never formally offered the role of James Bond

Q. I READ in Ann Widdecombe’s column in the Daily Express that there were an estimated 36 million hedgehogs in the UK when she was a child but that the number has now fallen to below a million. I would be intrigued to know how these figures were arrived at.Edmund Perks, Ivybridge, Devon

A. COUNTING hedgehogs is a difficult business. The survey in the 1950s that resulted in an estimate of 36.5 million hedgehogs was based on very limited data in a small area extrapolated over the whole country. This may well be an overestimate but later surveys confirm that the country’s hedgehog population has dropped significantly and continues to decline.

The usual methods involve surveys of hedgehog sightings in gardens, dead hedgehogs on roads, dead hedgehogs in the countryside and the number of sites across the country where hedgehogs have been seen. While these may disagree on how many hedgehogs there are, there is general agreement that the number has fallen by between 25 and 40 per cent over the past decade.

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The country’s hedgehog population has dropped significantly and continues to decline

Q. I’D like to know what the chemical formula is for oxygen depleted water.Ray Martin, Halesowen, West Midlands

A. WHEN we speak of “oxygen depleted water” or “water with high levels of oxygen” we’re talking about oxygen or oxygencontaining compounds dissolved in the water, not the oxygen that has combined with hydrogen to form the H2O molecules that form the water itself. So the formula of the water is just the same as it always was: H2O.

Q. ARE front door key locks all different. What are the chances of a key fitting another lock in this country? John Donoghue, Beckton, London

A. A TYPICAL door lock has five tumblers, each of which may be set in one of five, six or seven positions depending on the maker’s design. That gives between 3,125 and 78,125 possible settings. There are around 20 million households in the UK so there are probably between 256 and 6,400 front doors your own key would open.